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“The ash has been here since the last Ice Age and has a broad genetic base, so I don’t think it’s curtains for it quite yet – I think it has a reasonable future.

“The Earth Trust is at the very heart of work that could save the ash tree.”

The trust has planted about 60,000 trees in Paradise Wood, which is now the largest collection of hardwood forestry genetics trials in Britain.

Ms Clark added: “The tree populations in Paradise Wood have a broad genetic diversity, increasing the likelihood that we will be able to find genotypes that are naturally resistant to ash dieback and could be used to repopulate Britain’s forests.”

Earth Trust chief executive Jayne Manley said: “We hope that funding will be available to capitalise on the work that the Earth Trust and its partners have done to date.”

The scheme to find ash trees resistant to dieback disease is being run by the Earth Trust charity, with the Forestry Commission’s research arm, and the Future Trees Trust.

The Government has allocated about £8m annually for tree health and Ms Clark, who lives in south Oxfordshire, said she hoped the elite trees project would attract Government funding.

She added: “Seeds from the elite trees could be taken and planted near the (ash dieback) pathogen in places like East Anglia and Denmark, to see if they were resistant or not.

“Planting would have to be done in quarantine and in order to do that you need more funds. At the moment this work is being done on a shoestring by two or three members of staff.”